Blackslate’s Hot Shot

ElvisBy Laurie Cornetta“Elvis”, at his first dog show with me, someone walked by and said “well he sure ate his Wheaties." He was 26 ¾” at the shoulder OFA hips good elbows normal with a bite wide enough to drive a truck through. His show weight was 152 pounds, but this was not the weight he came to me at. I got “Elvis” from Virginia Rowland when he was 2 ½ years old. She came home from a dog show to find him in her side yard in very poor condition, abandoned by his previous owner. I worked at a very large animal hospital so she called me to help out and he never left my house after that. It took me about a year to get him recovered and leash broken. I think I still have calluses on my hands. He was a once in a life time dog in every way. His puppy owners have called me over the years to tell me how very different in personality they are from any other puppy they've had. He didn't know how to play as he was raised without other dogs. He would stand with his one favorite toy in his mouth and just watch the others wagging his tail. I was able to get him to within three points of his championship at the age of five but at one national we were attacked in the ring, He put himself between the other dog and me and took the bites. I didn't realize this until I was stacking him for the judge that there was blood onmy dress.

He took third place in a very large open dog class. As I was getting my ribbon, he dropped. Three men jumped in the ring carried him to my room where a lot of other people iced him down and stapled him up. After that I decided he that had had enough and let him spend the rest of his years as my boy. He was used as a stud dog many times and collected for the future. Some of his grand children have even been shown to reach the top twenty in our breed. We had a wonderful short time together, but he’s still living in the puppies that he will produce for the future of our breed. To me “Elvis” was the king.